“He thanks you for saving him on the ship, in the storm—what does he mean?”
I looked up then, but I didn’t say anything because he was still watching me, and Ihadsaved him, but not with intention or in the way he was probably thinking.It was my slippers that saved us both.
We have been struck by lightning together, I thought, my cheeks burning at the absurdity of it.
He kicked at the fur on the floor, looking down for a moment as he spoke.
“He asks if you consider a debt between the two of you or if his part in bringing you here has paid it.”
I frowned.“Him taking me captive, by accident or not, in addition to me saving his life would mean he owes me more, wouldn’t it?”
Dania laughed and then whistled amid more sea dog words.
Fell frowned as he listened.
“He says he took the wrong prisoner, but you were still imprisoned, no?”
I shook my head.
“He says the cart was locked from the outside.”
I held my face neutral, as if I’d known that.Had I simply ignored the jangling of the keys when one of my escorts opened the partial door to slide in a meal or take out my chamber pot?I had.I could remember the sound of the lock after Dania had translated Fell’s words, but I had not thought about it at all when I’d first heard it.
“He says you wore a torture cloth… or no… the word, torture tool?”
I was beginning to understand his thinking, but that made me less sympathetic, for I was no longer only arguing with him; I was arguing with myself, my life, the very notion of what I was.
“The man with the spear teeth… he forced me to sleep.”I wasn’t one to raise my voice, but there was a firmness that poured into my words.I knew I had a good argument.Why would they have poisoned someone they were rescuing?
Dania shared my meaning and listened to Fell’s response.“Ah, it was not meant to make you sleep.It’s a… there’s no Islish word for this, it’s for slowingberserk, for slowing the heart after battle, when a warrior cannot remember the fight is over on their own.Breathing the cloth lets the mind see only the present for a moment.They gave it to you because maybe you’d been fighting those outside the cart for days.He says he and Sigyn have wondered why you slept—Sigyn has guessed it was from the constraints of your clothing, that maybe you didn’t have enough air?”
Fell began to laugh.
“He says he is seeing everything how you are seeing it.”
The man bent forward with the force of his laughter.
“He says it’s a wonder you didn’t slay everyone onboard?—”
“This is not funny in the least,” I said.
“He says he has dropped his shield.He’s calling Sigyn over, he’s telling him now… all the mistakes?—”
“His shield?”
“It means he has made a grave error.”
I watched the fool struggle to tell Speartooth anything because he was laughing so hard.Speartooth spit out his drink and laughed along with him.Dania giggled too, though she had the decency to try hiding it from me.
“This is abhorrent,” I said.“To laugh at my suffering so.”
“Come now,” Dania said.“You cannot see how it is alittlefunny?How everything looked one way to one and another way to another?The gods have been meddling, it seems.”
Maybe I would have cried.Maybe I would have shouted.But King Arik returned with his readers, and Fell looked up at the man.
It was the first time I began to understand there was more between them than they shared with others.The king had an apologetic look about him, and Fell appeared wary because of it.
“The Bard King says they have deliberated and there are greater risks for someone acting Norsern on your behalf than with a usualsotern.He says that Fell will act as your guardian as he has been spared by whatever forces watch over you and because Hyrold—he is god of sea and storms—and Vaneurim, goddess of mothers, have visited both of you at the same time.”
